You guys are making light of this. But wireless spectrum is a regulated utility. The carriers paid a lot of money to get it, but they also have requirements to keep it. If they are not following the requirements of their contract then they have oversight requirements. AT&T has requirements like all other providers. They may be meeting their requirements but buying into the system means they have to submit to oversight.

The big problem is there is not a central plan for high speed internet, and it is up to the companies to take are of it and the cell system. What is needed is for the major players to put together a plan to work together and plan for the future growth. If they don't, the government we have now will want to take it over and make it a bureaucracy. People complain about the 3G service, but it is worthless unless we get a better fiberoptic network to carry the traffic.

Originally Posted by arshield

AT&T has requirements like all other providers. They may be meeting their requirements but buying into the system means they have to submit to oversight.

Myabe I'm remembering it wrong, but isn't AT&T the only broadband provider that uses separate networks for data and voice? The reason Sprint and Verizon will kick people off the service for violating TOS on their data services is heavy data usage can drag down a cell tower, crowding out voice service users.

Myabe I'm remembering it wrong, but isn't AT&T the only broadband provider that uses separate networks for data and voice? The reason Sprint and Verizon will kick people off the service for violating TOS on their data services is heavy data usage can drag down a cell tower, crowding out voice service users.

actually it is the opposite. AT&T uses voice and data on same network which allows both to be connected at the same time. Sprint and most others have it on different networks, which requires two separate antennas and connections to do both voice and data.

Thanks for clearing that up. Years ago, everyone was upset that Sprint would kick you off the service for using more than 5GB or so a month, so I figured that was their concern. I've never heard of AT&T dropping someone...